From: John Beckett 

Gary Britt  wrote in message
news::
>
> OK, thanks for the info.  I have a mix of winXP, win2K,  and sometimes
> win98 machine, so I usually keep net bios turned on.  If I understood
> you correctly you are saying that if I use static IP addresses for the
> machines in the peer network and make entries in each machine's hosts
> file then I wouldn't need net bios?

For XP and W2000, I'm pretty sure yes (i.e. using static IPs and having a
valid hosts file on each computer, and disabling NBT would be ok for file
sharing etc).

For W98, I believe you would need NBT enabled ... but not sure.

> If a machine is named "glb_mx7340" for example would the
host entry look
> like this:  "192.168.0.102   glb_mx7340"   ??

Yes.

> And if I do this than to setup network shares and printer shares I would
> just need port 445 open on each machine?  Both TCP and UDP or  just one
> or the other?

I'm not sure about printer sharing. I imagine it uses the same network
protocols and ports as file sharing.

File shares would use 445/tcp ... hmmn, I was about to say "and not
445/udp" but a quick check with 'netstat -an' on this XP computer
shows that 445/tcp AND 445/udp are active. Google shows conflicting views,
but for example, the following says TCP and UDP:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/204279

More confusion: On this XP box, NBT is disabled and only Windows Firewall
(WF) is used. Deep in the properties of WF it says that

File and Printer Sharing service has following open:
  tcp 139 subnet
  tcp 445 subnet
  udp 137 subnet
  udp 138 subnet

where "subnet" means that the source IP has to be on my
computer's subnet. I'm pretty sure I haven't edited the above properties,
so I don't know why it doesn't include udp 445 (maybe has never been
used??), not why it includes the 139 etc stuff (maybe NBT was enabled when
I first did file sharing??).

John

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